26 Comments
User's avatar
Elizabeth's avatar

You forgot to mention de banking of 'fat people'. How about CBDC's set so you can only buy salad and low fat yoghurt. Until your BMI is acceptable for changes to your social credit score you will be in no jab no job pariah status.

Low Status Opinions's avatar

I would have loved to have mentioned CBDC Elizabeth. But the post was already getting too long. I might do something on them in the future. Thanks for coming!

Vonu's avatar

When a person relies on the government for their health maintenance, it is appropriate for that government to intercede in decisions related to their future health.

Low Status Opinions's avatar

I’m pretty sure that is the idea Vonu.

Vonu's avatar

A diet of only salad and low fat yoghurt would be a perfect way to murder someone as parasympathetic dominant as myself,

Sathanas Juggernaut's avatar

This is why I'm conflicted with the free school meals for kids thing.

There can be little doubt it's a huge benefit to society if kids are properly fed. All those potential Einsteins and Hawkins that never met their potential because they didn't have enough to eat etc.

But then it's Government. So it's not free, it'll be some degree of incompetent and corrupt. Before you know it they've gone from giving them Turkey Twizzilers to giving them puberty blockers, hormones and neo pronouns behind the parents backs.

Low Status Opinions's avatar

Completely agree. On an individual level no child should be going hungry. But on a societal level, if the government, not parents, is responsible for feeding children, then you are living under socialism. I wouldn’t trust the government with this responsibility. The food would be overpriced and of poor quality, there would be huge amounts of rent seeking. And of course as you point out, parents would be ceding power over their kids to the state. Which in the real world, would only abuse that power. Thanks for your terrifying comment.

Vonu's avatar

Obesity would be in decline if the high fructose corn syrupy soft drinks were exposed as the threats to public health that they have always been. It wouldn't hurt to remove all of the processed foods from the market that feature high fructose corn syrup in the top third of their ingredients. Finally, the metabolism of fructose in the human body ought to be added to every STEM course in the public fool system, so its relationship to obesity would be clear to those beginning to battle it

Low Status Opinions's avatar

Corn syrup certainly seems to have an effect Vonu. Especially on the US I understand. But only one factor among many. Albeit a highly significant one.

Vonu's avatar

It isn't the corn syrup as much as the high fructose, that sugar being grabbed by the liver and converted to fat to be stored for an emergency. Before HFCS, soft drinks were more benign.

Dan's avatar

I really like how you point out the many hypocrisies and inconsistencies. I think I implicitly understand they are there, but don't have the brain to quite master. Also, the NPC link is, like you said, essential reading

Low Status Opinions's avatar

Thanks Dan. Yes. Gurwinder is a great Substack. I heard him on a podcast recently, not sure where, lots of fascinating insights. I don’t think it’s your brain btw, I think it’s almost designed to confuse, though obviously not in a secret conspiracy way. Also society often just demands contradictory outcomes from the same starting point. Inconsistency is everywhere, so we usually just filter it out.

Samuel Chapman's avatar

They did some research on NHS staff and found a strong correlation between lower BMI and higher wage bands. Perhaps education, class, intelligence, decision making ability, environment, location and culture all matter?

Low Status Opinions's avatar

Yes it’s a genuinely complex issue Samuel. All the things you mention clearly have an impact. There’s also the low/high status signalling which probably counts for a lot. Class, which you mention, plays a huge role. As does attitudes to class. Also different cultural norms, which I expect played a role in the NHS case. A link to the study if it’s in a digestible form would be welcome. Thanks so much for your comment.

Samuel Chapman's avatar

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/12/e018498

Unregistered care professionals essentially means Health Care assistants - band 2 on the pay scale when the research was done (vs band 5 for nurses). The "Other Health Care Professionals" tend to have greater autonomy and are less likely to work shifts - physios, dieticians, occupational therapists and so on.

I'd have liked to have seen doctors included, although their pay scales very closely with age.

The NHS is possibly the single most class-bound organisation left in Britain!

Low Status Opinions's avatar

Thanks so much Samuel. It was quite technical for me to be honest. But what did jump out was that the study was about numbers of obese people, but the conclusion immediately pivoted to concerns about the effects of obesity. Which is not what the study was measuring. ‘High obesity prevalence among nurses and unregistered care workers is concerning as it increases the…..’ it felt like a sleight of hand to me. But maybe I’m just not familiar with this sort of report. As an outsider, your assertion about the class bound nature of the NHS rings 100% true!

Bettina's avatar

Apparently this is now a common tactic in technical reports: the evidence all points in one direction and then suddenly the Conclusion says the opposite. It's another example of how we are led by the nose by assuming a word means what we've always believed it to mean, whereas the meaning has been hijacked (see 'vaccines' and mRNA injections)

Bettina's avatar

The Cambridge Dictionary definition of government (the group of people who officially control a COUNTRY) is no longer adequate is it?

Deranged control freaks who want to take all your money, watch your every move on camera, and tell you what you can think, eat and do , would be nearer the mark.

Hey, Cambridge Dictionary! They control PEOPLE not COUNTRIES.

Low Status Opinions's avatar

Spot on Bettina. A perfect, but amazingly important distinction. A bit like ‘government money’ being in reality ‘people’s money.’

Bettina's avatar

Dominic Frisby's book, 'Life After the State', is the most perfect description of how it's all gone wrong. It's so sad to read the quote from historian, AJP Taylor:

"Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman."

Today, almost every 'news' bulletin on the radio starts "The Government says......"

🌡🐸 🥵

Low Status Opinions's avatar

Absolutely. Love that book.

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Sep 12, 2023
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Bettina's avatar

Yes it is - so readable! His book about the history of taxation is also amazingly entertaining. My artist daughter who has not the slightest interest in economics loved it. Highly recommended.

Andrew Phillips's avatar

Hilarious. As Oscar Wilde might have said "The highest accolade I can give is to say I wish I'd written it myself" :-)

Low Status Opinions's avatar

The first, and no doubt last, time I will ever been mentioned in the same sentence as Oscar Wilde. Thanks Andrew. I know that’s not what you meant. But I’m taking it anyway.

Ray Andrews's avatar

‘people who are living with obesity’.

People living with size -- please!

Yes, we must be healthy, and what could be healthier that having your genitals transitioned? Question: if a trannie was overwei ... sorry 'living with size', would they be punished by not qualifying for mutila ... sorry 'reassignment' until they'd lost weight? And what if they Identify as svelte notwithstanding what racist scales might say?

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Sep 12, 2023
Comment deleted
Low Status Opinions's avatar

Thanks Matthew. Yes, too long. I shouldn’t really ask that much time of my readers, it’s a bit presumptuous of me. It weirdly just grew and grew which is ironic. A lesson learned and thanks to everyone who made it through! Promise they will be shorter from now on. I agree, I wish they could just leave us alone, they’re banning a type of vape today I see. Because ‘won’t someone think of the children!!!!’ Obviously. I felt bad about the Lizzo joke, but then I heard she’d been fat shaming her dancers. So I treated myself….. Thanks for your support as ever.